Earlier quoted context omitted.
And, yet, here you are on HN ;D
>... nearly all...
Indeed! Considered that and yet I only recently started referring to HN as my social media recently and thought that might add to the conversation.
Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
11–20 of 274 posts
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#12As someone who's recovered from multiple substance addictions in the past, it is so painfully obvious when I see social media addicts. It's literally the exact same behavior. The compulsion, the lack of awareness, the ignoring of friends and loved ones while mindlessly scrolling; it's all there. Social addiction is even more sinister because the feedback loop is scientifically optimized in a way no substance could ev…
No substance could ever match? More powerful than hunger? I strongly challenge that.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#13I disconnected from nearly all social media about four years ago, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I did not even notice the recent Facebook outage in my daily life, and wouldn’t have even been aware of it without HN.
In the past several years I was able to leverage Facebook groups to meet people and find activities when I moved abroad, furnish an apartment when I moved back, discover a niche retro gaming community that I adore, share photos and memories with old friends when a high school friend passed away, collect stories and remembrances that were shared for an uncle who died and share those with his elderly, non-tech parents,…
This is always the response. But I would say ask yourself, do you truly need these things? Or are the fleeting superficial connections that you maintain through social media simply distracting you from seeking truly meaningful interactions, and substituting an artificial (although comforting) facade in its' place?
If you truly care about someone, you will call and talk to them. Or orient your life in a way that facilitates that relationship. Otherwise what you are doing is tantamount to slacktivism.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#14Are they taking about the same Facebook? I find it utterly boring and only use it for messenger anymore.
It used to be addictive, before social media, when it was a social network. You were interacting with real people, you could meet new people, "stalk" people you know IRL, share stuff about yourself or find out stuff about others. You would try to find your crush on FB and check see if you have common acquaintances. And you would obsessively watch who looks at your page and who likes your posts. The thing that made it addictive were the actual human interactions that people crave.
I wish someone would make a site like that again!
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#15Does anyone else find it hard to personally connect with the well-researched claim that people respond with a fight-or-flight response to ideas that challenge their core beliefs? I've always found ideas to be more interesting the more they challenge my core beliefs. This is true of math and science, but especially true of things like religion. I remember how wonderful it was as a teenager to find challenges to the ideas I was raised with, debating my positions with people online, and appreciating losing debates and having my mind opened to new ideas.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the past several years I was able to leverage Facebook groups to meet people and find activities when I moved abroad, furnish an apartment when I moved back, discover a niche retro gaming community that I adore, share photos and memories with old friends when a high school friend passed away, collect stories and remembrances that were shared for an uncle who died and share those with his elderly, non-tech parents,…
This is always the response. But I would say ask yourself, do you truly need these things? Or are the fleeting superficial connections that you maintain through social media simply distracting you from seeking truly meaningful interactions, and substituting an artificial (although comforting) facade in its' place? If you truly care about someone, you will call and talk to them. Or orient your life in a way that facil…
Beautifully put. I have a cousin who always updates me on what his extended family is doing as though he's talking with them weekly. Turns out he's just regurgitating Facebook status updates to me. He may as well have been talking about Lionel Messi or Kylie Jenner
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#17Imagine if nicotine had network effects (edit: I mean as strong network effects as fb). You can't quit unless all your friends do too. I hear some alcoholics have a similar challenge when their social life revolves around drinking with peer pressure not to abstain.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the past several years I was able to leverage Facebook groups to meet people and find activities when I moved abroad, furnish an apartment when I moved back, discover a niche retro gaming community that I adore, share photos and memories with old friends when a high school friend passed away, collect stories and remembrances that were shared for an uncle who died and share those with his elderly, non-tech parents,…
This is always the response. But I would say ask yourself, do you truly need these things? Or are the fleeting superficial connections that you maintain through social media simply distracting you from seeking truly meaningful interactions, and substituting an artificial (although comforting) facade in its' place? If you truly care about someone, you will call and talk to them. Or orient your life in a way that facil…
Did I truly need to gather the sentiments of my dead uncle's friends and coworkers to print out and share with his grieving parents? I'm going to say yes, I did. Of course, none of what I referenced precludes using a different platform for the same experience. I wish I had been able to gather those posts from WT.Social or some other platform I don't think is ravaging our culture. But that's not where the people are.
As for this: "Or are the fleeting superficial connections that you maintain through social media simply distracting you from seeking truly meaningful interactions"
I have more than enough meaningful interactions in my life, and having less intimate interactions with a broader range of people doesn't distract or detract from those more significant connections. Sometimes, those less personal connections are what have eventually led to some of my most important connections.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#19The author who wrote this has tweeted, on average, 1-2x a day for 10 years. https://twitter.com/jaronschneider
Twitter has by far become a more egregious platform for society (an information/propagation architecture that exploits how people process information, imo).
For me, Facebook is nothing more than a hometown forum. I havent logged on in months.
Re: Facebook is an addiction treadmill most may never be able to quit
#20As someone who's recovered from multiple substance addictions in the past, it is so painfully obvious when I see social media addicts. It's literally the exact same behavior. The compulsion, the lack of awareness, the ignoring of friends and loved ones while mindlessly scrolling; it's all there. Social addiction is even more sinister because the feedback loop is scientifically optimized in a way no substance could ev…
No substance could ever match? More powerful than hunger? I strongly challenge that.
>No substance could ever match?
If you plot the area under the curve of addictive behavior engaged in over a lifetime, absolutely. People can quit substance addictions. You know that your addiction is harming you and actively destroying your life while you are engaged in it. Those feelings eventually lead most people to quit if they don't die. But social addiction is different. It feels like you're actually doing something useful and good, while it rots away your agency and sense of self. You become a mindless scroller whose tastes, preferences, ideologies, and overall cultural milieu become entirely mediated through engagement algorithms without you ever being aware of it.